


twenty-four hours

by arcanesupernova



Series: Always Have Been, Always Will Be - A Series of One-Shots [10]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, No Affair AU, Soulmate AU, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24387199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanesupernova/pseuds/arcanesupernova
Summary: On your thirtieth birthday, time freezes for everyone but you and your soulmate. It's Charlotte's thirtieth and imagine her surprise with it's not Sam unfrozen with her, but Ted.
Relationships: Charlotte/Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals)
Series: Always Have Been, Always Will Be - A Series of One-Shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099445
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	twenty-four hours

**Author's Note:**

> Ooh boy, two fics in one night (with the help of WiFi)  
> I found this prompt on pinterest and it kinda only works if you don't think too hard about it.  
> But isn't that just every soulmate AU?

In their world, when you finally hit the age of thirty, the time around them stopped. For a full twenty-four hour period, the only people that could move and speak were the one celebrating their birthday and their universe-appointed soulmate. Charlotte was secure in her eyes, knowing that she and Sam would finally have twenty-four hours to themselves to spend how they pleased but as the clock ticked down and Sam and her co-workers from the office readied their party poppers, it was much to Charlotte’s surprise when Sam was frozen but he wasn’t.

Ted.

“Are you kidding me?” Ted barked out a laugh, looking Charlotte up and down before looking back to the sky. “She’s my soulmate? I spent my entire thirtieth birthday alone because she was too busy with her husband?”

“Oh, Ted,” Charlotte brushed him off, “This is obviously a mistake, my soulmate is Sam, the universe got it wrong.” She moved over to Sam, dismayed to find his eyes locked on their secretary, Melissa as she stared back at him with a disgusted look.

“Oh yeah, that guy seems real dedicated to you,” Ted snorted, rolling his eyes. “So we won’t be one of those, Hatchetfield Times breaking news headlines. It’s all good.”

“Why are you being so nasty to me?” Charlotte shot back at him, glaring at him up and down.

“Why did it have to be you?” Ted groaned, “It’s nothing against you, personally, but I was hoping the person I would spend my life with would, you know, not be trapped in a loveless marriage.”

“I love Sam!” Charlotte insisted, puffing up at his accusation.

“Oh, let me rephrase then, I was hoping my soulmate wouldn’t be a fucking idiot who couldn’t see the truth right in front of her.” He gestured back to Sam’s lecherous gaze on Melissa.

“See, this can’t be right,” Charlotte cried, “There’s no way the universe would send me someone so cruel.”

“Yeah, well, this is whatcha get, don’t worry, I’m not winning by any stretch of the imagination.”

“What is your problem, Ted?” Charlotte demanded, puffing her chest out at him. “I didn’t ask for this, you know.”

“Charlotte, you absolute-” Ted stopped himself, thinking better of what he was about to say. “-Look, once this twenty-four hours is over, we can just go back to pretending I don’t exist and that I’m not in love with you-”

“You’re in love with me?” Charlotte sounded disgusted, but there was no consolation from the horrified look on her face. “What could possibly have made you, the office fuckboy, fall in love with me? A happily married woman, I might add.”

“Yeah, you can go ahead and keep saying it, it won’t make it any more true.”

Charlotte fumed, staring at Ted to try to figure out why on Earth the universe would think anything about him would’ve been appealing to her. “Why?” she asked finally, doing her best to keep her voice calm.

“Why what?” Ted sighed, entertaining himself with the back of a book from her bookshelf.

“Why are you in love with me? When did that happen?”

“Oh, I don’t know, the minute you walked into the office, I suppose,” he shrugged, still not meeting her gaze.

“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed, sitting back down to bury her head in her hands. “And what, you’ve just been pining after me like some pathetic tool for the past five years?”

Ted made a scene of counting out the years on his fingers before nodding at her sarcastically. “It’s been no field trip, I assure you. Imagine my horror the first, and only, might I point out, time that Sam came into the office,” Ted told her. “I knew you weren’t going to see me, so I just shoved those feelings way down inside to just pretend they aren’t there.”

“Just leave me alone, Ted,” Charlotte whimpered, wiping a tear away. “I just… I cannot with you right now. Just go away.”

“Not gonna do that, but alright. I have twenty-four-” he checked his watch “-twenty-three hours and thirty minutes in a frozen timeline. I think I’ll stay right here.”

Charlotte didn’t respond but went and snuggled up to Sam, much to Ted’s chagrin. “He’s my husband,” she shot at him when he gave her a dirty look.

“So how is this the first time you’re realizing this?” Ted asked, “What were you up to on May 25th of this year? That’s when my birthday was.”

“I-I just thought Sam was caught up at work and didn’t have the chance to text me,” Charlotte said, leaning away from Sam and wrapping her arms around her legs.

“Hmph, what did you do? Just sit around and read all day? Maybe work on your crochet?”

“H-How did you know that?” Charlotte asked, taken aback.

“Because I fucking know you, Charlotte,” Ted insisted, looking up at her sharply. “Because I fucking pay attention.”

“That’s weird, Ted,” she shot back.

“No, it would be weird if you weren’t my soulmate, but look at that, you are.”

“Are you sure you haven’t thought about just going away yet?”

“Hmm, nope, not gonna happen.”

The two sat in silence for what felt like hours, but judging by Charlotte’s watch, only two hours of this day from hell had passed.

“I was supposed to have a day all with Sam but now I’m spending it with you,” she grumbled finally, looking over at him.

“Yeah, well, hate to say it but you lucked out there sweetie-pie,” Ted mocked her.

“My Sam loves me,” she insisted again.

“You can keep saying that, but it’s not going to make it true.”

“So what, you think you can treat me better than he does?” she demanded, standing up to glare down at him. “My Sam protects me and this entire city, what have you done for me lately other than piss me off.”

“Well, I’m not cheating on you, for one,” he pointed out, “and for two, I mean, give me an hour, I can show you.”

“Mistakes happen,” Charlotte said in defense of her husband.

“Ah, yes, he mistakenly fell into that poor barista over and over and over until you finally caught them,” Ted laughed humorlessly.

“So what, you think you can… f-fuck me better than Sam can? Not likely.” The challenge felt wrong on her tongue but her heart raced as he looked her up and down.

“Well, fucking you at all is more than he’s done lately, isn’t it?”

“You’re just so smarmy, Ted. How could I ever love you?”

“Give me some time, I can show you.” His brow wiggled mischievously at her and she could feel his eyes working her over already. Her eyes flicked over to him quickly before she averted her gaze shamefully.

“No, Ted. I’m a loyal wife,” she lied. It was obvious he could smell her lie a mile away as he barked a laugh out at her.

“Oh, that’s why you’ve been spending so much time with Gary Goldstein? I’m not going to say I know what you’re doing with him because I don’t, but I also know what a freshly fucked woman looks like.”

“Fuck you, Ted.”

“No Charlotte, fuck you,” Ted snarled, “You don’t owe me anything, but do you know how much it hurt to see you throw yourself at anyone _but_ me? No matter how many times I stopped by your cubicle to see you? To ask you out for coffee? I could see that you were hurting and, knowing what I know now, I know why I cared so much but at the time it felt like a dagger through my chest. And guess what? It’s going to keep being one. Because you’ll never leave Sam. No, the only way I’ll get a shot with you is if he leaves you first.”

“Not even then,” Charlotte murmured, not looking at him as she slid down the wall to sit on the floor and rested her face back in her hands.

“Don’t do many favors there, do ya Char?” Ted sneered. “I’m a big boy, I can just move away to get the taste of you out of my mouth.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“What’s that, Charlotte?”

“Don’t… leave,” she whispered again, finally looking up to meet his gaze.

“All you’ve wanted me to do for the past three goddamn hours is leave,” Ted reminded her, exasperated, “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m feeling just the tiniest bit of whiplash.”

“You’re my soulmate, you can’t leave,” she muttered.

“Oh, I think I can,” Ted chuckled, “Unless you’re going to give me a reason to stay.”

“I don’t have one of those, Ted, but I just don’t like the thought of you not… being here.”

“Oho, so it’s a selfish desire then,” Ted bristled, “Do, pray tell, let me know of any more selfish desires you may be harboring.”

“Ted, I-” Charlotte’s voice hitched in her throat as she looked up at him, surprised to find his eyes red and glistening, “-don’t love you, but I don’t know what I would do if you left.”

“You’d go on with your sham of a marriage and probably never forget about me just like I wouldn’t forget about you but you’d probably be pretty good at ignoring it.”

“But Sam-”

“Charlotte, we’re talking in circles here,” Ted sighed, sliding down the wall to sit next to her. “Listen, it’s all out there now. You do with it what you want but I’m not going to wait around for you forever.” He paused, before nodding, “No, I probably would but please don’t make me do that.”

“Why couldn’t this have happened when we were eighteen, back before I put almost ten years into a marriage with a man who doesn’t care about me.”

“The universe is a cruel and spiteful bitch, ain’t she?”

Charlotte nudged him, before looking over at Sam. “You’re still just a horny bastard, Ted.”

“Yeah, well, with a sex drive like yours, someone’s got to be able to keep up.”

Charlotte giggled, looking over and nudging him again. “I suppose you’re not too hard on the eyes.”

“And you’re only the like, second most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh? Who’s number one?”

“I lied, you’re number one too.” Ted laughed and Charlotte couldn’t help but giggle along with him. It was strange how easy it was to fall in with Ted and she didn’t fight it when he looped her fingers into his.

“Ted, I-”

“Charlotte, we just stopped fighting. Can we enjoy this quiet moment for just a little while longer?”

“I wasn’t going to argue anymore, I just wanted to say… I’m sorry.”

“Well, you should be,” Ted snickered, squeezing her hand gently.

“I was just shocked,” she pressed on, ignoring his interruption. “It wasn’t that I didn’t like you or anything, I just… I don’t know, thinking about you was strange so I tried not to do it.”

“If you had let yourself?” Ted asked, looking over at her with a raised brow.

“Well, I would’ve-” she bit her lip before taking a steadying breath “-I would think about how cute your mustache was, and what it would be like to kiss a man with just a mustache.”

“There’s plenty of time to find out,” Ted grinned, “Was there anything else though? I’m more than just my mustache.”

“Well, I didn’t want to be with you as like… an affair because the thought of being with you was way bigger than just that. When I thought of being with you, my mind just went to the long haul every time.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s been the same for me.”

“Figures.”

“So what do we do, Charlotte? Are we just ill-fated lovers destined to never be together?”

“I don’t know, Ted. I have a lot to think about.”

“He’s gonna know when he wakes up and so does everyone else. Are you going to tell him it was me instead?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’d have to. I don’t even know that he’d be that upset.”

“That’s pathetic, Charlotte. How can you think like that but then still hesitate to leave him?”

“Oh, Ted, it’s not that simple,” Charlotte lamented, “There are ten years of a life I’ve built that I’d have to just throw away.”

“Is it really that big of a deal when it was ten years wasted?”

“It’s still ten years that I’m never going to get back.”

Ted was silent for a while but Charlotte didn’t mind. He kept his hand locked in hers, rubbing the small space between her thumb and her pointer finger soothingly. Sam would never be content with spending time alone with her like this, in silence, not doing anything but with Ted it felt… normal. It felt right.

“Ted, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Charlotte.”

“Do you think the universe tells us so late because it’s a sick joke or because it wants you to really appreciate it when you get it?”

“Hmm, I’d bet it’s supposed to be the latter but it really feels like the former, doesn’t it?”

Charlotte turned to him, looking him over again with fresh eyes, letting go of her preconceived notions of him. He raised an eyebrow at her inspection but seemed pleased as she rested her lips on his. The kiss was everything she didn’t know she wanted and when she pulled away, she knew that the universe wasn’t giving her some terrible birthday present. Ted worked his hand into her hair desperately, pulling her back into another kiss. This one was chaste and desperate as if breaking apart would stop his breathing.

“Charlotte, I love you so much,” he whispered when they broke apart for the second time. His eyes were red again but this time he wore a smile as he looked her over, like he’d received the greatest gift imaginable. She bit back her smile from growing large as she pushed her lips back to his.


End file.
